Microorganisms play an important role in the geochemical cycles, industry, environmental cleanup, and biotechnology among other fields. Given the high microbial diversity, identification of the microorganism is essential in understanding and managing the processes. One of the most popular and powerful method for microbial identification is comparative 16S rRNA gene analysis. Due to the highly conserved nature of this essential gene, sequencing and later comparison of it against known rRNA databases can provide assignment of the bacteria into the taxonomy, and the identity of its closest relatives. Isolation and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes directly from natural environments (either from DNA or RNA) can also be used to study the structure of the whole microbial community. Nowadays, novel sequencing technologies with massive outputs are giving researchers worldwide the chance to study the microbial world with a depth that was previously too expensive to achieve. In this article we describe commonly used research approaches for the study of individual microorganisms and microbial communities using the tools provided by Ribosomal Database Project website.

In this study, specific pollutant releases during the Asian monsoon season were estimated and the information was applied to the non-point pollutant sources management from two forested watersheds of the Soyang Lake. The two watersheds are part of the 2,703 km2 Soyang Lake watershed in the northern region of the Han River. The outlets of the two watersheds were respectively analyzed for continuous water quality concentration and for discharge during various single rainfall events. Statistical power function methods are utilized to compare stream discharge and pollutant flux release during the study period. Based on the monitoring data during the study period, the specific load flux method using simulated discharge was conducted and validated in the two watersheds. The model predictions corresponded well with the measured and calculated pollutant releases. The modeling approach taken in this study was found to be applicable for the two forested watersheds.

In this study, total bacteria, enteric members of the $\gamma$-proteobacteria, and microbial communities in seawater were analyzed as indirect indicators for quantifying biofouling. Biomass in seawater can significantly affect feed water pretreatment and membrane biofouling of reverse osmosis desalination processes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate microbiological quantity and quality of seawater at the potential intake of a desalination plant. For this analysis, the total direct cell count (TDC) using 4'-6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI)-staining and DNA-based real-time PCR were used to quantify the total bacteria and relative content of enteric members of $\gamma$-proteobacteria in seawater, respectively. In addition, microbial communities were examined using 16S rRNA gene cloning and bacterial isolation to identify the most abundant bacteria for a further biofouling study. The experimental results of this study identified about $10^6$ cells/mL of (total) bacteria, $10^5$ 16S rRNA gene copies/mL of enteric $\gamma$-proteobacteria, and the presence of more than 20 groups of bacteria.

Sorption of $Ni^{2+}$ in aqueous solution was studied using montmorillonite. The experimental and equilibrium data fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm model. From the kinetics data for nickel sorption onto montmorillonite, the diffusion of $Ni^{2+}$ inside the clay particles was the dorminant step controlling the sorption rate and as such more important for $Ni^{2+}$ sorption than the external mass transfer. $Ni^{2+}$ was sorbed due to strong interactions with the active sites of the sorbent and the sorption process tends to follow the pseudo second-order kinetics. Thermodynamic parameters (${\Delta}G^{\circ},\;{\Delta}H^{\circ},\;{\Delta}S^{\circ}$) indicated a non spontaneous and endothermic adsorption process while the positive low value of the entropy change suggests low randomness of the solid/solution interface during the uptake of $Ni^{2+}$ by montmorilionite. Heavy metals such as $Ni^{2+}$ in aqueous bodies can effectively be sorbed by montmorillonite.

In this study, we have prepared three kinds of carbon nanometer tube $CNT/TiO_{2}$ electrodes through impregnation with different concentration titanium n-butoxide (TNB) solution. The prepared electrodes were characterized with surface properties, structural crystallinity, elemental identification and photoelectrocatalytic activity. The $N_2$ adsorption data showed that the composites had decreased surface area compared with the pristine CNT. This indicated the blocking of micropores on the surface of CNT, which was further supported by observation via SEM. XRD results showed patterns for the composites and a typical single and clear anatase crystal structure. The main elements such as C, O and Ti were existed for all samples from the EDX data. The catalytic efficiency of the developed electrode was evaluated by the photoelectrodegradation of methylene blue (MB). The positive potential applied in photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) oxidation was studied. It was found that photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) decomposition of MB solution could be attributed to combination effects between $TiO_2$ photocatalytic and CNT electro-assisted. Through the comparison between photocatalytic (PC) oxidation and photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) oxidation, it was found that the PEC oxidation efficiency for MB is higher than that of PC oxidation.

Column experiments were performed in this study to investigate humic acid adhesion to iron oxide-coated sand (ICS) under different experimental conditions including influent humic acid concentration, flow rate, solution pH, and ionic strength/composition. Breakthrough curves of humic acid were obtained by monitoring effluents, and then column capacity for humic acid adsorption ($C_cap$), total adsorption percent (R), and mass of humic acid adsorbed per unit mass of filter media ($q_a$) were quantified from these curves. Results showed that humic acid adhesion was about seven times higher in ICS than in quartz sand at given experimental conditions. This indicates that humic acid removal can be enhanced through the surface charge modification of quartz sand with iron oxide coating. The adhesion of humic acid in ICS was influenced by influent humic acid concentration. $C_cap$ and $q_a$ increased while R decreased with increasing influent humic acid concentration in ICS column. However, the influence of flow rate was not eminent in our experimental conditions. The humic acid adhesion was enhanced with increasing salt concentration of solution. $C_cap$, $q_a$ and R increased in ICS column with increasing salt concentration. On the adhesion of humic acid, the impact of CaCl2 was greater than that of NaCl. Also, the humic acid adhesion to ICS decreased with increasing solution pH. $C_cap$, $q_a$ and R decreased with increasing solution pH. This study demonstrates that humic acid concentration, salt concentration/composition, and solution pH should be controlled carefully in order to improve the ICS column performance for humic acid removal from water.

Solubilization of sewage sludge creates favorable conditions for anaerobic microorganisms to produce biogas. In this paper, we quantify the effect of heating pretreatment on the degree of solubilization of sewage sludge. The pretreatment process was carried out using a lab-scale industrial microwave unit (2450 MHz frequency). Response surface analysis was applied to determine the combination of temperature-increase rate (ramp rate) (2.9 to 17.1 ${^{\circ}C}$/min) and terminal temperature (52 to 108${^{\circ}C}$). Both ramp rate and temperature significantly affected the solubilization degree of sludge. Within the design boundaries, the conditions predicted to maximize the solubilization degree of 15.8% were determined to be 2.9 ${^{\circ}C}$/min and 104${^{\circ}C}$.

The main objective was to develop and assess a dynamic fate and transport model for lead in air, soil, sediment, water and vegetation. Daejeon was chosen as the study area for its relatively high contamination and emission levels. The model was assessed by comparing model predictions with measured concentrations in multi-media and atmospheric deposition flux. Given a lead concentration in air, the model could predict the concentrations in water and soil within a factor of five. Sensitivity analysis indicated that effective compartment volumes, rain intensity, scavenging ratio, run off, and foliar uptake were critical to accurate model prediction. Important implications include that restriction of air emission may be necessary in the future to protect the soil quality objective as the contamination level in soil is predicted to steadily increase at the present emission level and that direct discharge of lead into the water body was insignificant as compared to atmospheric deposition fluxes. The results strongly indicated that atmospheric emission governs the quality of the whole environment. Use of the model developed in this study would provide quantitative and integrated understanding of the cross-media characteristics and assessment of the relationships of the contamination levels among the multi-media environment.

Escherichia coli K-12 (E. coli K-12) is a representative indicator globally used for distinguishing and monitoring dynamic fates of pathogenic microorganisms in the environment. This study investigated how to most critically quantify lacZ ($\beta$-galactosidase) gene in E. coli K-12 by two different real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) in association with three different DNA extraction practices. Three DNA extractions, i.e., sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)/proteinase K, magnetic beads and guanidium thiocyanate (GTC)/silica matrix were each compared for extracting total genomic DNA from E. coli K-12. Among them, GTC/silica matrix and magnetic beads beating similarly worked out to have the highest (22-23 ng/${\mu}L$) concentration of DNA extracted, but employing SDS/proteinase K had the lowest (10 ng/${\mu}L$) concentration of DNA retrieved. There were no significant differences in the quantification of the copy numbers of lacZ gene between SYBR Green I qPCR and QProbe-qPCR. However, SYBR Green I qPCR obtained somewhat higher copy number as $1{\times}10^8$ copies. It was decided that GTC/silica matrix extraction or magnetic beads beating in combination with SYBR Green I qPCR can be preferably applied for more effectively quantifying specific gene from a pure culture of microorganism.